Matt Damon is one of the few acclaimed actors who has worked with some of the greatest directors in cinematic history. The 52-year-old actor is skilled at giving characters depth that leaps off the screen thanks to his work with Francis Ford Coppola, Clint Eastwood, and his recent appearance in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.
Given his impressive accomplishments, Damon is known to have strong opinions about the direction that particular scenes should go. Despite the fact that the actor may have started out in the 1998 film Mystic Pizza in a bit role, his breakthrough performance in Good Will Hunting with Ben Affleck was a true labor of love.
However, he had no idea what it would be like to collaborate on a 1998 epic war film with Steven Spielberg.
Spielberg believed that Damon would be ideal for the role (James Francis Ryan) of the dejected soldier in Saving Private Ryan after seeing him as a heroin addict in Courage Under Fire (1996).
Steven Spielberg Ignored A Sincere Request From Matt Damon
In the course of his career, Matt Damon has worked with a number of notable filmmakers, including Gus Van Sant and Clint Eastwood. Unfortunately, none of these experiences could have really prepared him for the chance to collaborate with the legendary, Steven Spielberg.
Damon had some observations about the director’s method while collaborating with him on the 1998 film Saving Private Ryan, but his requests were completely ignored.
Following the success of Good Will Hunting, for which Damon won an Academy Award for Best Screenplay, he developed a very rigid sense of how a scene should be performed. He frequently required multiple takes to get the ideal shot.
So, when the Oppenheimer actor asked Spielberg for a few more shots, he received a suitable response as The Departed actor recalled:
“There was a scene with a couple of guys, and Spielberg moved on, and I said, ‘Don’t you think we should have done a couple more takes of that thing?’ because it hadn’t been great. And he said, ‘I can spend about an hour on that scene and make it ten percent better, or I can do another great shot. I’m gonna do the shot.’”
The actor then revealed another instance in which Spielberg handled his temper tantrums properly as the actor, 52, further added:
“You can do whatever you want, but just do it over there because that’s where the movie’s going to be.”
A similar incident happened while filming the Clint Eastwood movie Invictus (2009). Even though Damon gave excellent performances in each scene, he felt like he could have performed even better in one of them. When the actor requested that the scene be reshot, the director reportedly refused.
Matt Damon Had A Challenging Time Shooting Steven Spielberg’s 1998 Film
Steven Spielberg is considered one of the best directors of all time because his films give the audience an experience of total immersion that is unmatched by any other. It is possible that his distinctive style and cinematography are overlooked favorably due to how instinctive and natural his command of the medium is.
But one thing audiences never fail to notice in a Spielberg film is the actors’ compelling performances, and the Raiders of the Lost Ark director unquestionably has a big hand in that.
Matt Damon once provided a detailed account of his experiences working with the aforementioned director to GQ, stating that “it was a very collaborative process”:
“He made me not go to boot camp so that the other guys would resent me. They all went through this experience, and they all bonded, but because I was the character they were looking for, they resented this guy that they were risking their lives to save.”
His experience was less than pleasant because he was pushed to the limit. However, Damon only understood how talented Speilberg was after seeing the finished product of Saving Private Ryan.
The movie went on to win several awards, including the Golden Globe, Academy, BAFTA, and Saturn awards, earning $482.3 million, making it the second-highest-grossing movie of 1998.
Moreover, Saving Private Ryan is regarded as one of the best movies ever made. It is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
Source: GQ
